Facebook Logout Ads: Hot property or Cold Turkey?

Lately these huge ads (shown below) have been spotted when one logs out of their Facebook account. Facebook Logout ads look like a page timeline, include a small description of the advertiser at the bottom right corner and takes the user to the advertiser’s Facebook page. Any premium post page ad is eligible to be shown on the logout screen.

Looking like a digital billboard, these ads have the potential to reach a huge audience. Advertisers can use the logout space to show videos, pictures, offers and events. The Logout ads are paired with Facebook’s premium home-page ads and are not available singularly.

The logout ads have been rolled out only for major advertisers, with no information from Facebook about their setup or what is needed to get them activated.

These ads use the most tried and tested technique of capturing the viewer’s complete attention. They take over the viewing space of the user completely, and are hard to ignore. With these logout ads, Facebook is trying to improve the experience of the user, by taking the larger format ads out of the timeline and news feed to the logout page. But this does not mean that Facebook is taking ads out of the news feed completely. Ads will still be there, but for advertisers who want the feel of a digital billboard, there are the logout page ads, which are beneficial for the advertiser and less irksome for the user.

Even though this method of advertising on Facebook gives a lot of visibility to the advertiser, the effectiveness of this method is still under speculation. While launching these Facebook Logout page ads, the company officials revealed that 37 million users logout of Facebook everyday, but whether or not they would stick around to watch the ads and take a desired action is another question.

Also, there are scores of social media users who are constantly connected via smartphones or tablets and never logout of their accounts. This means they they are unlikely to come across the logout page ad. And then there are those who might find these ads intrusive. Those who consider Facebook to be purely a social media venue to connect with their friends and family.

Big names such as Mustang, Subway and Bing have used the Facebook logout ads, almost as soon as they were launched. Effectively or not, that remains to be seen.

What do you think? Would you stick around to watch an ad after logging out, if at all you do log out?

I am a writer, reader, and a part time adventure and travel enthusiast. The other three things that vie for my mind share are dark chocolate, coffee, and photography. I am highly motivated by user perspectives and addressing the common human experience when I write.